Some writers take to drink, others take to audiences.
GORE VIDALIn writing and politicking, it’s best not to think about it, just do it.
More Gore Vidal Quotes
-
-
I’m all for bringing back the birch, but only between consenting adults.
GORE VIDAL -
He who is last had best laugh.
GORE VIDAL -
In the writing of novels, there is the problem of how to shape a narrative.
GORE VIDAL -
Americans, in general, are ignorant, bigoted, and deeply unhappy with their declining incomes.
GORE VIDAL -
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he’s been bought ten times over.
GORE VIDAL -
I know a lot of the Annapolis breed.
GORE VIDAL -
Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.
GORE VIDAL -
Until very recently, the artist was a magician who did his magic in public view but kept himself and his effects a matter of mystery.
GORE VIDAL -
As for civil liberties, any one who is not vigilant may one day find himself living, if not in a police state, at least in a police city.
GORE VIDAL -
The four most beautiful words in our common language: I told you so.
GORE VIDAL -
History is nothing but gossip about the past, with the hope that it might be true.
GORE VIDAL -
The greatest pleasure when I started making money was not buying cars or yachts but finding myself able to have as many freshly typed drafts as possible.
GORE VIDAL -
World War II made prosperous the United States, which had been undergoing a depression for a dozen years, and made very rich those magnates and their managers who govern the republic – with many a wink – in the people’s name.
GORE VIDAL -
Of all recent presidents, Clinton was expected to behave the most sensibly in economic matters. He understood how the economy works. But because he had used various dodges to stay out of the Vietnam War, he came to office ill at ease with the military.
GORE VIDAL -
In the German concentration camps, Jews wore yellow stars while homosexuals wore pink lambdas.
GORE VIDAL -
The United States is the only civilized country in the world to class its teachers at the bottom of the social scale.
GORE VIDAL -
Today’s public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can’t read them either.
GORE VIDAL -
In classical times, it was a capital offense to speculate upon the hour of a king’s death or upon the identity of his successor.
GORE VIDAL -
To preserve the human race, it is now necessary to reorganize society. To this end, an Authority must be created with the power to control human population, to redistribute food, to purify air, water, soil, to re-pattern the cities.
GORE VIDAL -
American history has fallen more and more into the hands of academics.
GORE VIDAL -
As for my support for Obama, remember that I was brought up in Washington. It was an all-black city when I was a kid. And I’ve always been very pro-African-American – or whatever phrase we now use.
GORE VIDAL -
All children alarm their parents, if only because you are forever expecting to encounter yourself.
GORE VIDAL -
The United States was founded by the brightest people in the country – and we haven’t seen them since.
GORE VIDAL -
Policemen are seldom tried for their crimes, or indeed, held responsible for what they do, which disturbs the peace and causes distress among the orderly.
GORE VIDAL -
Both Marx and Christ agree that in this life, a right action is consideration for the welfare of others.
GORE VIDAL -
I’ve yet to read a memoir by anyone I’ve known at all well that came anywhere near to the truth.
GORE VIDAL